


Buying Power

by Zetal (Rodinia)



Series: Rare Ships on Bingo [15]
Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Royalty, Arranged Marriage, Discussions of Magically Arranged Mpreg, M/M, Politics and Finance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-24
Updated: 2020-08-24
Packaged: 2021-03-07 00:53:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,308
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26088244
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rodinia/pseuds/Zetal
Summary: There were times Yuri absolutely hated having been born royal.  All the restrictions on how he could behave in public, all the limitations on who he could spend time with, all the expectations for his public persona… those sucked.  It was even worse knowing that his kingdom was unexpectedly poor.  It wasn’t his fault that disaster after disaster had struck.  It wasn’t his fault that his family had preferred to invest their money in helping other kingdoms with their disasters rather than save it, and then those kingdoms had all pulled the “so sad what’s happening, but we can’t help” card and refused to help.And yet, Yuri was the one who was suffering to pay the price.  Yuri who was going to be “sold” to solve the problem.
Relationships: Emil Nekola/Yuri Plisetsky
Series: Rare Ships on Bingo [15]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1867507
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5
Collections: Rare Ships!!! on BINGO 2020





	Buying Power

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: Limitations  
> Pairing: Emil Nekola/Yuri Plisetsky

Yuri tugged at the clothes. They were about three years out of fashion, but they were the best he had. He was lucky they still fit, really. They couldn’t put off buying him new clothes much longer, but there wasn’t money for it. “Grandpa, are you sure about this? There’s really not any other way?”

“No, Yurotchka. I’m sorry. I wish there were, for your sake, but this must be done.” Nikolai hugged Yuri and quickly fixed a strand of hair that had fallen out of the ribbon holding it back. “The council has tried to find any other option, but we can’t.”

“I’m not sure the council could find their asses with both hands, a road map, and a guide,” Yuri muttered. “You promise this guy’s not awful? He’s not gonna be some stuck-up dick who thinks he gets to run all over me because I need his money?”

“I can’t promise that, Yurotchka, you know that. You know how politics go. What I can promise is that if he is that kind of asshole, he’s done a truly excellent job in hiding it during negotiations.” Nikolai knelt in front of Yuri, wincing a little as his back bent strangely. “I don’t think he could manage to keep up the act for an entire year, if he is. If you’re worried, volunteer to be the one to try to become pregnant. If you have concerns about his treatment of you, then you can ensure that there is no healthy pregnancy or baby a year and a day after the marriage. The marriage will be annulled, and perhaps by then, things will have changed enough that we won’t have to go through this again and can choose you a partner on a different basis.”

So there was an escape clause built in. Yuri hugged his grandfather. “Thank you. You’re the best grandfather I could have asked for. The best regent.”

For the meeting, Yuri and his fiancé-to-be were going to be left alone, to Yuri’s surprise. The man bowed. “Your Highness. Emil Nekola, pleased to be of service.”

“Yuri. Knock it off with the formality, we’re supposed to be getting to know each other to see if we can make this marriage work and you’re not going to be calling me Your Highness after we’re married.” Yuri crossed his arms instinctively, but then realized he might as well play along for now and see what happened if he held one out.

“As you wish, then.” Emil took it and kissed it. Yuri couldn’t help the sigh. Emil was still on the bullshit despite Yuri telling him to get off it. “Do you really buy that there’s no one spying on us, though? No one watching through a hole in the wall cleverly disguised in a tapestry to make sure I don’t hurt you or overstep my current place?”

Yuri opened his mouth to protest, but then he realized… there probably was at least one member of the council watching. Scheduled “accidental” interruptions by maids being paid an extra penny or two to spy for the council. “No, you’re probably right, but still. I think you can get away with calling me Yuri and just being yourself here.”

“Sounds good to me.” Emil hopped up on the table to sit, swinging his long legs back and forth. “So just to be sure I’m understanding your position here: your kingdom is in desperate need of money, which I can provide since my family is wealthy. You aren’t thrilled with the idea but you know how it works when you’re royalty.”

“Exactly.” Yuri grabbed a chair and sat down, putting his feet up on the table like he’d always wanted to do but never was allowed before. A small rebellion, sure, but still a rebellion.

“Which is why there’s the pregnancy clause. One of us, I assume me, needs to produce an heir. It’s very important for you to produce one since you don’t have any siblings or cousins that you know of, so if you die without a child, the kingdom’s likely going to fall into chaos.”

“Why do you assume you? You’re not buying into the bullshit about my ill health, are you?” The rumors were out there, and they pissed Yuri off no end. He’d been a rather sickly baby, which was only to be expected when his mother was dying of cancer when he was born, but he’d grown out of it. It hadn’t helped that he’d been small and skinny most of his life. Emil was still taller than Yuri, and just glowed with perfect health.

Emil held up his hands. “Not at all. It’s just… you’re the one who’s going to be king. You’ll have a ton of official duties, I’m just there to fund things and look pretty and do the things you can’t or don’t want to do. A pregnancy would interfere with you being able to do things you might want to do, so I’m assuming that’ll be one of the duties you hand off to me.”

“Huh.” Yuri had no idea what to say to that. “And you’re just… cool with that? You don’t mind?”

“Not thrilled with the idea, but hey, my kids will be royalty. I can think of way worse things to put up with for that opportunity.” Emil shrugged. “You sound surprised.”

“Being royalty’s not as fun as it’s cracked up to be,” Yuri muttered. He could not for the life of him imagine why anyone would choose to live with all the bullshit rules and expectations and politics and lack of gratitude. “You know I need your money, which means if you don’t want to do something, you can just tell me to do it myself or you’re taking back the purse strings.”

“No, I don’t know that,” Emil said. “You’re the king, or you will be when you turn twenty-one and can take power. You’ve got no reason to tolerate me being an idiot. All I know, you get the money, and two days after the first anniversary you trump up some charges of treason against me and throw me in the dungeon or have me executed. We’ve got to trust each other at some point, and hey, why not start now?”

Yuri stared hard at Emil. He sounded genuine enough, and he had a good point… if Nikolai lived that long there was no way he wouldn’t support his grandson taking care of himself by getting rid of an irritating husband. Even if he didn’t, Yuri could appoint council members who would support him, not Emil. He did have power even if he made Emil be the one to go through pregnancies. “This first one, I’ll carry; that way no matter what there’s no doubt he’s mine,” Yuri decided. “After that, we’ll see how me being pregnant goes. May have you do it, may just do it myself.”

“Sure, no reason to decide that immediately. I take it that means you’re not going to call this off? We’re doing this?”

“I guess so. You seem halfway decent, which is probably about all I can ask, really.” Yuri looked around, trying to guess which tapestry was concealing their spies. Probably the one over there with all the people so a pair of eyes wouldn’t look out of place. He stared directly at it. “Guess we’re formally engaged. Any idea how long we have before the wedding?”

“Three months, probably. Enough time for all your nobles to make arrangements to be here and your wealthy commoners to gather enough money together to provide appropriate gifts, minimizes the time you and I have to back out. Also gives the mages time to get you on the needed regimen so we can start working on that baby we’re supposed to have a year later on the wedding night.”


End file.
